Truck With Flat Tires Leads San Francisco Police On Chase

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A husband pushed his wife into the back of a rental truck Thursday afternoon and fled from police through a broad swath of San Francisco, even after officers used spike strips to flatten two of the truck’s tires, police said.

The chase began with an argument between the husband and wife in the 600 block of Jamestown Avenue near Candlestick Park, Sgt. Michael Andraychak said.

Police received a 911 call at 4:35 p.m. reporting that after the argument, the man pushed his wife into a Budget rental truck and another woman, a friend or family member, got in the truck with the man and the three drove away, Andraychak said.

Officers began looking for the truck because the driver was suspected of domestic violence, and spotted it nearby. The driver took off with police in pursuit.

The chase went all over San Francisco, through the Bayview, Potrero Hill, Mission and Lower Haight neighborhoods. Police used spike strips to flatten two of the truck’s tires, but the driver didn’t stop.

As the driver became more reckless on city streets, police called off the pursuit, fearing it could cause a public safety hazard.

The truck was later found abandoned near the corner of Oak and Clayton streets, next to the Panhandle. The three occupants had apparently fled.

Andraychak said that police know who the three are and are looking to talk to them, as well as any witnesses to the initial incident, to determine what sparked it all.

Several cars sustained minor damage during the chase and police took incident reports from those car owners and are making that part of the ongoing investigation.

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